‘Vacationing’ to reconnect with India’s Zoroastrian culture

Farzad Irani, a physical therapist born and raised in New York, tucked into a plate of mutton dhansak and egg chutney pattice, happily reacquainting himself with Parsi cuisine as part of a 15-day trip through western India intended to stir up his connections to his ethnic and religious identity as a Zoroastrian.

Irani
had last visited Mumbai as a 12-year-old, when he’d undergone his navjote, the
traditional Zoroastrian initiation ceremony. This time he’d returned with
Return to Roots, an organization that hopes to connect young Parsi and Irani
Zoroastrians to their heritage, partly in hopes of reviving a community that
once thrived in and around India’s largest city.

“I
thought it could be cool,” said Irani over lunch after a visit to the Dadar
Athornan Institute, where Parsi priests are trained. “It would be different
from my normal vacations. I wanted something more spiritual, more educational,
to learn where we came from.”

According
to legend, Zoroastrians arrived by boat on India’s west coast between the 8th
and 10th centuries, fleeing religious persecution in Persia. They found refuge,
quickly integrating with the local population by adopting the Gujarati language
and local customs, while steadfastly hanging onto their religious beliefs. That
first wave became known as Parsis; a second wave, arriving in the 19th century,
became another subset called Iranis.

Since
then, they have flourished as a successful, well-educated minority, producing
some of India’s most prominent merchants, lawyers and doctors.

Participants
on a Return to Roots trip learn about embroidery being sewn on garments while
touring the Ratan Tara Institute in Mumbai, India, on Dec. 21, 2018. RNS photo
by Bhavya Dore

But
with later and fewer marriages and lower fertility rates, Parsi and Irani numbers
have fallen in the past three decennial Indian censuses — just 57,264 in 2011,
compared to 100,772 in 1961 — prompting fears that the proud minority may soon
disappear. It’s estimated that there are as many as 40,000 Zoroastrians living
outside India.

Inspired
by Birthright Israel, a 20-year-old organization that brings diaspora Jewish
youngsters to the Holy Land, Return to Roots is designed to help young
Zoroastrians fortify connections and engage more deeply with the endangered
culture.

“We
thought, ‘Why don’t we have something for Zoroastrians?’” asked Arzan Sam
Wadia, Return to Roots’ program director. “How do we create a whole package of
experiences that touches everything from history and culture to food and
entrepreneurship and meeting their peers?”

Return
to Roots’ two-week tours include meeting priests, homes and restaurants,
worshipping at local fire temples, checking out heritage and culture, and
exploring contemporary debates within the community.

A
glazed tile depiction of Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda in the town of Taft, Iran.
Photo by A. Davey/Creative Commons

Irani,
29, who was raised Zoroastrian, met fellow believers during the Zoroastrian
Youth Congress, held every four years in locations around the globe, or the
biennial Zoroastrian Games. “Winning gold medals is one thing,” he said,
chuckling. “Learning this stuff is another.”

Karl
Raghina, sitting across the table, was also familiar with the basic contours of
his faith, but growing up in California largely severed him from the faith.
“It’s nice to see things we have heard about,” said Raghina, 35, an engineer
from San Diego.

Return
to Roots fellows must be between 22 and 35 years old and are selected based on
an application. Unlike Birthright Israel, which is partly government-funded and
completely free, Return to Roots depends entirely on private donations. The
cost of the trip for the fellows is about $1,000 plus airfare.

So
far five trips have brought 81 young people from at least eight different
countries, including the U.S., U.K. and United Arab Emirates.

“It
brings a renewed sense of being Zoroastrian and what that means,” said Wadia,
who lives in New York. “The aim is to provide the tools for what it means to be
Zoroastrian. If people don’t live in India and soak those things up by osmosis,
sometimes they don’t know them.”

Kayras
Irani, a 32-year-old Canadian who now lives in New Zealand, was on his fourth tour,
his third as one of five volunteers organizing the trip. He grew up going to an
Irani Zoroastrian fire temple and taking religion classes but, he said, “I
connect at a deeper level each time.”

The
Return to Roots tours generally begin in Mumbai, where the largest numbers of
Zoroastrians still live, and visit Udvada, where the Parsi refugees first
settled, and Navsari, home to rural Parsi communities.

Iranian
Zoroastrians gather around a giant bonfire in a ceremony celebrating their
ancient midwinter Sadeh festival in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 30, 2015. Sadeh, the
feast of creation of fire, has been observed since the ancient days when
Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion in the powerful Persian empire. (AP
Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The
organizers hope the itinerary eventually will extend to Iran, where
Zoroastrianism, considered the oldest monotheistic religion, originated 4,000
years ago. For now, the antagonism between the United States and Iran puts the
country off limits for most American participants.

If
Parsis are a minuscule minority even in India, that sense of being set apart is
amplified abroad, where there may not be other Parsi families, let alone fire
temples.

“I
felt disconnected,” said Ava Damri, 32, who lived in Auckland before moving to
Dallas. As a teenager, Damri stopped wearing the sacred thread and vest that
believers receive on their initiation. By the third day of the trips, she was
already reconsidering as she got a better understanding of the rituals.

“I
used to be very proud to say I am a Zoroastrian,” said Damri, “but I could not
give more than surface-level answers about it.”

A
Zoroastrian priest instructs a child in tying the Kushti ritual garment during
the navjote ceremony. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

The
firsthand knowledge also helps others understand their faith. “We are always a
minority, but we need to have a knowledge of our own culture before we can
educate others,” said Karanjia. “I improved my understanding of my own
background, so I can answer questions about it better.”

Return
to Roots also stresses an urgency about sustaining the Parsi and Irani
populations. One evening, the group attended a talk where the tour leaders
talked about an 18 percent drop in the Indian Zoroastrian population between
2001 and 2011. A government program launched in 2013 offers financial
assistance for less well-off couples who want a child, under which 172 babies
have been born so far. This month new incentives, such as a senior citizen
honorarium for child care and creche and child support, were launched.

Some
more liberal Zoroastrians are skeptical of such measures, calling the
government’s help a myopic scheme that reduces women to baby-makers. They
advocate for reforms that would allow the children of Parsi women who marry
outsiders to be accepted, as the children of Parsi men married to non-Parsis
already are.

Though
its advertisements exhort people to marry young and within the community,
Return to Roots doesn’t play matchmaker among its participants and Wadia says
the discussions are intended to be informative, not evangelical. “No topic is
taboo,” he said. “They may or may not agree with [some things] but at least
they understand [what is happening].”

Still,
if romance blooms during the fortnight, no one would complain. Past trips have
yielded a few couples. “When you get young people to meet in an organic setting
… ,” said Damri, laughing as she trailed off.